September 23, 2009

The Best Bloody Mary

Bon Appétit (September 2009)

When the Bloody Mary was first popularized in the 1920s and 30s, the recipe was simple: Half tomato juice, half vodka.

Since then, Bloody Marys have gotten a lot more complicated. Today, even a basic Bloody is likely to have celery salt, lemon juice, Worcestershire sauce, Tabasco and horseradish. And the drink hasn't escaped the current mixology trend -- au courant Bloodies include everything from Chinese five-spice to bacon-infused vodka to local, organic heirloom tomatoes.

Yes, it's been an 80-year trend toward a fancier Bloody Mary, and it's culminated in this recipe from Bon Appétit.

We can't imagine a more complicated Bloody than this one. Golden beets? A fennel bulb? Sriracha? Guinness?

Bon Appétit says it's "the best," but the recipe sounded absolutely ridiculous to us. So we couldn't wait to try it out!

With a whopping 17 ingredients, there's a lot going on in this drink. We've made stews with fewer ingredients. It wasn't terribly hard to find any one of the components -- thankfully, we happened to have all the non-produce ingredients on hand, including the Sriracha and Guinness.

The ingredients. Not pictured: Bay leaves, celery salt and 36 hours of labor.

So this past Sunday, we headed to the farmers market to pick up the fresh ingredients we needed. "We'll just run down to the market and then enjoy this delicious Bloody when we get back," we thought.

What fools we were! Clearly, we hadn't read the recipe very thoroughly.

After we got home and got into the recipe, we quickly realized the first step is to cook the vegetables down for 50 minutes. "Oh," we thought. "Okay. Well, our Bloody Mary moment will be a little delayed."

While the vegetables were simmering, we finally stopped to read the whole recipe. And that's when we saw it: "Cover and chill overnight." Overnight?!

"This had better be the best %#@*& Bloody Mary we've ever tasted!" we thought.

Our Sunday brunch cocktail had become a Monday night pre-dinner drink. We mixed in the vodka and filled glasses with ice. We poured. We garnished. We clinked glasses. We sipped.

The verdict?

This Bloody Mary was bloody terrible! Not only was it a huge disappointment given the Herculean bartending it required, the drink wasn't even good on its own merits. For a cocktail that calls for the entire farmers market and the whole kitchen pantry, this Bloody Mary was watery and bland. (And we had actually used more spices and hot sauce than the recipe dictates.)

So save yourself 30 bucks and 36 hours of trouble: Unscrew a bottle of Zing Zang, mix in some vodka and enjoy your Sunday morning.

Comments

The Best Bloody Mary

Bon Appétit (September 2009)

When the Bloody Mary was first popularized in the 1920s and 30s, the recipe was simple: Half tomato juice, half vodka.

Since then, Bloody Marys have gotten a lot more complicated. Today, even a basic Bloody is likely to have celery salt, lemon juice, Worcestershire sauce, Tabasco and horseradish. And the drink hasn't escaped the current mixology trend -- au courant Bloodies include everything from Chinese five-spice to bacon-infused vodka to local, organic heirloom tomatoes.

Yes, it's been an 80-year trend toward a fancier Bloody Mary, and it's culminated in this recipe from Bon Appétit.

We can't imagine a more complicated Bloody than this one. Golden beets? A fennel bulb? Sriracha? Guinness?

Bon Appétit says it's "the best," but the recipe sounded absolutely ridiculous to us. So we couldn't wait to try it out!